butter up


verb
  1. (tr, adverb) to flatter

Words Nearby butter up

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

How to use butter up in a sentence

  • Ye see she's dependent on Jeames, so she has to butter up at 'im.

    A Window in Thrums | J. M. Barrie
  • Thereput them in that cupboard, and set the butter up here, and put the bread in this box, do you see?

    The Wide, Wide World | Susan Warner
  • I say so myself; and butter up my vanity with all the stimulating compliments I can think of.

  • He says it when he wants to let himself go and simply butter up a thing.

    Mike | P. G. Wodehouse
  • You may draw the butter up out of the well, presently, when breakfast is quite ready.

    Mildred Keith | Martha Finley

Other Idioms and Phrases with butter up

butter up

Excessively praise or flatter someone, usually to gain a favor. For example, If you butter up Dad, he'll let you borrow the car. This term transfers the oily, unctuous quality of butter to lavish praise. [c. 1700]

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.